Don’t blame public employees

It is time for Carlos Gimenez to stop blaming public workers for Miami-Dade’s budget deficit and be a leader.

For three years since he took office, public employees have sacrificed significant portions of their base pay, earned holidays, and even basic healthcare to find a solution to Miami-Dade’s economic problems. They have already borne much of the brunt of Gimenez’s one-dimensional approach to governing: slash taxes because it’s popular, and then blame the unions for being too greedy when there is a deficit.

Yet, despite the concessions and cuts to employees earned benefits, the administration continues to drive Miami-Dade into further debt and misappropriate public money to pay for funding gaps as we read in the May 30 article, Miami-Dade finds a way to have tourists help pay for police — but only briefly. Gimenez should find a solution to the problem elsewhere.